Foreign trade likely to hit new record this year
Export and import reported double-digit growth in the first quarter of 2022, signaling a good year for the foreign trade. According to Mr. Tran Thanh Hai, Deputy General Director of the Agency of Foreign Trade, Viet Nam’s foreign trade rose by 176 billion USD in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 14.4 percent. Export alone expanded by 12.9% during the period.
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| Hai Phong Port. (Photo: VNA) |
Some experts forecast that total export-import revenue could reach a record high of 700 billion USD for this year so the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has been taking drastic measures to improve providing market information to exporters.
The country enjoyed relatively high growth in agricultural product shipments, about 18 - 19% and some key commodity exports such as coffee, rice and aquatic products saw even higher growth of up to 50%.
Mr. Hai attributed the surges to great benefits brought by new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs), particularly the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-PacificPartnership (CPTPP), EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), UK-Vietnam FTA (UKVFTA), and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
These are FTAs between Viet Nam and major trade partners and they all work out well, he said. As the MoIT expects foreign trade to surge by 6 - 8 % to reach 363 billion USD this year, while maintaining trade surplus, it has focused on helping traders make the most of the FTAs.
The Ministry has developed a number of websites providing information updates to domestic firms. In addition to themed websites run by Vietnamese trade offices overseas, it launched the Viet Nam National Trade Repository (VNTR) at https://vntr.moit.gov.vn, which was built with the help of the UK Government, at the end of March.
It forms part of Viet Nam’s moves to fulfill its commitments to ASEAN in enhancing transparency of trade policies and regulations, facilitating regional trade and supporting the business community to gain broader access to information regarding trade, services and investment within the ASEAN cooperation.
The MoIT has also organized a number of virtual and in-person training courses on trade policies and FTAs and given away various handbooks, publications and materials providing instructions on how to export to China and new markets like the Middle East and Latin America.
A new handbook is expected to come out soon to instruct firms to shift from unofficial-quota to official-quota export, it revealed.
(Source: VNA)
